Biography provided by participant
Courtney Banks is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nat’l Security Associates WorldWide, LLC (NSAWW) and one of the nation’s foremost experts in homeland and national security and business development. As CEO, Banks sets a focused strategic direction for the firm and has been the driving force behind its tremendous growth. Since establishing NSAWW, she has methodically assembled a senior leadership team that represents a combined eighteen decades of public service and business experience working in intelligence, defense, transportation and border security, preparedness and response, and law enforcement.
Banks’ experience prior to founding NSAWW spans the public and private homeland/national security sectors – from the White House and Department of Justice, to the world’s largest defense contractors.
Previously, Banks served as Vice President of Homeland Security for Raytheon Company where she developed the company’s homeland security business in North America, the Middle East, Eastern and Western Europe, and Asia. In less than two years, her efforts resulted in a doubling of Raytheon’s homeland security revenues, to more than $1 billion USD.
Prior to joining Raytheon, Banks served as Director of Homeland Systems Solutions for Lockheed Martin. In this capacity Banks built strategic relationships with other corporations to develop and market homeland security/homeland defense solutions. Under Banks’ leadership, these business alliances won more than $3 billion USD of new business, including multi-million dollar contracts at the Department of Homeland Security; the Transportation Security Agency; the U.S. Secret Service; and the Department of Transportation VOLPE Center.
Prior to joining Lockheed Martin, Banks served as an independent national security consultant to the federal government and private corporations. Banks assembled and directed project teams that addressed a spectrum of real-world homeland security issues: from combating terrorism, crisis planning, prevention, and response, medical readiness, and arms control to non-proliferation, consequence management, and corporate security.
In 2000, President Clinton appointed Banks to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations /Low Intensity Conflict, where she served as the Assistant in Charge of Global Terrorism Issues. Prior to this appointment Banks also served as the program manager for the Inter Agency Response Awareness Program for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations /Low Intensity Conflict in the counter-terrorism directorate.
Before serving the Clinton administration, she acted as Director of Force Health Protection for the Department of Defense in which capacity she was a subject matter expert on combat stress management.
Banks appears regularly in national and trade media and is a sought after speaker on national security issues. She holds a MA in National Security Studies with a concentration in Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict from Georgetown University and a BA, with honors, in European Military History from the University of Pennsylvania. She maintains a TS-SCI security clearance and resides in the metro Washington, D.C. area.
